Why Iceberg Lettuce is the best slimming food in the world

Iceberg Lettuce vs Romaine lettuce and other greens

For a long time now, iceberg lettuce has been said to be low in nutrients and that it’s better to use romaine lettuce (which has more green chlorophyll in it than) or to use spring greens or spinach. But I’m going to put forward a case that while the others may (or may not) provide a richer blend of nutrients, when it comes to losing weight, iceberg lettuce is a far superior choice, and not because it has fewer calories!

Source

Vitamin K and Osteoporosis

While everybody ‘knows’ that osteoporosis (porous, weakened bones) are caused by a lack of calcium, what is less known is that there is a higher number of breakages in people with limited Vitamin K. Those people who had high components of Vitamin K in their system, despite having osteopenia or osteoporosis, weren’t likely to break bones. Two cups of this great salad green has a remarkable 28 micrograms of this nutrient. That’s 28% of your daily requirement. Not at all shabby!

Calcium

What most people don’t know is that virtually all green leaves contain great stores of calcium. And iceberg lettuce is no exception. What’s more, as it works together with Vitamin K to form healthy bones, the fact that these two vital ingredients are contained in one foodstuff makes for a great convenience food. In addition, while Vitamin D is known as the happy vitamin, it is relatively unknown that a good amount of calcium in the blood also makes for a great mood elevator!

Iron and energy

You know how the edges of this lettuce always goes brown? This is iron oxidizing in the air. This wonderful salad green is packed with iron, and if you don’t have sufficient iron, you will develop anaemia and be very tired all the time. By eating loads of this food, you will not only ward off tiredness but have an increase in energy!

Myths about Iceberg Lettuce

Vitamin A, fibre, B vitamins, and more.

Vitamin A is generally found in orange colored veggies like carrots. But there’s enough of it in this leafy food to add to the health of your eyes. Lettuce also contains fiber as well as Vitamin B6, Thiamin, Vitamin C, Folate (did you know that dogs were given folic acid in order to prevent their hair from going grey?), and manganese. Lettuce has many nutrients.

The high water content and chewy aspects make it the best diet food in the world!

While other supposedly super foods to lose weight apparently have some sort of magic ingredients in it, I’m afraid, the ‘magic ingredients’ in this one are nothing more than water and the fact that one must chew on it.

Think about this for a moment.

The more of this salad vegetable you eat, the more full you feel, and the more your appetite is sated. Of course, you do mix it with other foods, but because the lettuce is very filling when you slice it up, the less you eat of other foods.

Most foods, in order to describe their ‘delicious’ factor are described as ‘melt in your mouth.’ The problem with any food (or drink) melting in your mouth is that you don’t chew and, therefore, don’t use saliva, and if you don’t use saliva to break down the food, then the stomach isn’t signalled that food is coming down the gullet and it doesn’t prepare the right chemicals to break down the food, and then the food remains undigested in your stomach and you are more prone to putting on weight, developing food intolerances, and having the food convert into fat (and toxins) without being used for energy.

Iceberg lettuce forces you to chew it because it doesn’t melt in your mouth. The high content of water also fills you up so that you don’t need as much food as you would otherwise. But are a few leaves of lettuce enough to fill you up?

Do you make Iceberg Lettuce a part of every meal in order to cut calories

How much is enough?

Having a leaf of lettuce in a salad with tomatoes, spring onions, a cucumber slice, and a rich dressing isn’t going to do anything for you. Instead, take a large head of lettuce (every day), slice it into manageable bite sliced pieces, and store it in your refrigerator for addition to everything else you eat. It adds bulk to every other food, and at 10 calories for the entire head of the lettuce, you’re winning all the way.

Scientists have shown that the only way to lose weight is to take in less energy than you are expending. A calorie, incidentally, is just a measurement of the amount of energy it will give you. So if you take in 2000 calories a day and you’re only spending 1500 calories a day, you’ll add something like a pound of weight every week. That’s 52 lbs in a year. It takes 3500 unused calories to gain a pound of weight.

How to slice Iceberg Lettuce

Recipe

Eat, at least, 2 cups of sliced lettuce with every meal. That includes breakfast. Mix the lettuce with sliced boiled eggs, a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil (oil released the nutrients inside any green leaf), salt, pepper, and as many fresh green herbs as you can manage. Herbs, incidentally, are the most nutrient rich ingredients there are. Yes, of course, you can put in other ingredients, but always eat with your two cups full. That way you will feel sated very quickly and you will require less of the more calorie dense food.

You will need to be imaginative, and you will probably need to do some research, but you can adapt any dish to have a high content of raw lettuce. Oh, yes, while I love to put lettuce in soups, it doesn’t work when it’s cooked because the crunch, chewy factor disappears.

Lettuce goes well with chopped chicken, turkey, shrimp, eggs, tuna, mussels, strawberries, cucumber, spring onions, many different herbs, and, occasionally, avocado pear. You can also take the chill factor out of this salad dish on cold days by warming the protein and serving it that way. It warms the dish but doesn’t remove the chewy factor!

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